The German Principle of Partnership

There is something in German which you would not expect if you belong to those who think that Germans are self-centered people. The German language can certainly prove the opposite. There are a variety of German words which start with the prefix “mit”corresponding to English “co-“ as in “co-operate” most prominently found in words like “Mitarbeiter” which means “work mate”or “co-worker” and Mitbürger “fellow citizen” or even referring to the middle of something as in “Mittag” since “mit” can be the short form of “Mitte” meaning “middle” .

So English desperately tries to make up for this powerful short Germanic prefix or preposition based on the principle of sharing by resorting to Romance prefixes such as “co-“ as in co-ordinate, “sym-“ as in ”sympathize” or add a word such as “mate” at the end as in “room-mate”, “play-mate” or filling this gap with a variety of other words such as “joint, fellow, follow, participation, along, away or simply substituting it with the word accomplice”.

German on the contrary has no problem in providing a big list of words staring with “mit” without any need for hyphenation. The German word “Mitglied” which means “member” shows that “mit” refers to one ring in a chain of rings. In fact you might be even inclined to give up looking up any word starting with “mit” due to the long lists provided. The following is a short list:

Mitbewohner: house-mate
Mitbegründer: co-founder
Mitbeklagter: co-defendant
Mit benutzung: joint use
Mitbesitz: joint possession
Mitbestimmung: having the right to participate in decision making
Mitbeteiligter: accomplice
Mitbringen: bring along with
Mitdednken: be able to follow
Zum mitnehmem: take away
Miterbe: joint heir
Mitfahren: give a lift
mitfühlen: sypathize
Mitgift: dowry
Mitglied: memeber

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